Eighty-one percent of consumers say they expect privacy to erode over the next five years

EMC’s Privacy Index ranked countries by privacy and examined how much consumers are willing to give up for convenience. The report covered 15 countries and 15,000 consumers.

The data is interesting given the Edward Snowden leaks and revelations about government snooping into social media, email accounts and instant messaging to name a few. What EMC’s report shows is that technology almost naturally encroaches on privacy and consumers are generally confused about what they give up. Consumers want convenience but most won’t give up privacy for it, but don’t do anything to protect their data and share data on social networks.

Among the key findings:

91 percent value digital technology, but only 27 percent say they are willing to trade privacy for convenience online.

85 percent of respondents value digital tracking of criminals and terrorists, but 54 percent are willing to trade some of their privacy to track the bad guys.